25 years of ‘Om’: Top five reasons why you should watch Shivarajkumar and Prema’s classic film

‘Om’ is one of the iconic movies produced in 1995, which was directed by Upendra. This crime drama starred Shivarajkumar and Prema in lead roles. This movie has completed 25 years today, which has given fans a reason to celebrate it. This film revolves around rowdyism, and how a gangster quits the negative life. It also motivates people to quit rowdyism, and lead a happy life. Hamsalekha has composed music for this movie. Let's look at the top five reasons to watch ‘Om’ on its 25th anniversary.

The Kannada film industry had explored many genres till 1995, but ‘Om’ was the first Kannada film which was based on rowdyism. The movie revolved around an underworld don’s life, which became a huge commercial success and created a trend in the Sandalwood. Later, many Kannada films followed in its footsteps. Upendra started writing the story of ‘Om’ in 1980 after hearing a real incident about a don.

Even though the film motivates real-life gangsters to leave the underworld and live a clean life, director Upendra brought real-life rowdies to make sure the message in the movie reached people effectively. Jedarahalli Krishnappa, Bekkina Kannu Rajendra, Tanveer, Korangu Krishna have acted in the movie. Upendra has also revealed once that it wasn't easy to approach them and make them act in the movie.

Shivarajkumar and Upendra came together for the first time for the movie ‘Om’ which was produced by Parvathamma Rajkumar under the production company Sri Vajreshwari Combines. This was the third movie of Upendra after ‘Tharle Nan Maga’, and ‘Shh!’, which gained huge popularity. Shivarajkumar who already was a star in the Kannada film industry had not been giving hits at the time. After acting in ‘Om’, his stardom reached the next level in the industry. This combination created huge wonders in Sandalwood. It was also a career-changing movie for Prema, who had lost hopes of becoming successful in the film industry, after her first unsuccessful movie ‘Savyasachi’.

‘Om’ had some evergreen songs composed by Naadha Brahma Hamsalekha. The music was like cherry on the cake for the movie. The line ‘I Love you, You Must Love Me’ and the background music was the highlight, which was still loved by many people. ‘Hey Dinakara’ and ‘O Gulaabiye’ was sung buy Kannada film industry legend Dr Rajkumar, which also became huge hits. ‘Om’s’ music became immortal in the career of Hamsalekha.

‘Om’ was a record-breaking movie in Sandalwood. This movie was re-released over 550 times and in over 400 theatres across Karnataka. In 2015, the film was re-released with Digital Intermediate and DTS for the first time in over 100 theatres. It was the first Kannada film to be re-released so many times. In 2015, the film’s TV rights were sold for Rs 10 crore to a private channel. Upendra, Shivarajkumar and Prema won Karnataka State Film Awards for the movie. It also has a record of bringing many real-life gangsters into one movie.